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Guest Blog: Video Production for Fundraising – Part II – Quality Control

This is Kimberly Elworthy’s second guest post for What Gives Philanthropy.Click here to read “Video Production for Fundraising – Part I”.

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I do believe there is a minimum standard in this day and age that can be and must be achieved if you are choosing to represent your organization through the visual medium of video. These basic necessities I outline below; you must follow these 3 principles:

Lighting. Lighting. Lighting. The sun is free. Please use this resource. If your videos are not well lit, they will be pixilated, they will be unattractive, they will look dated and your organization will look out of touch. The best rule of thumb is to keep the back of the videographer (that is the person holding the camera) to be facing the lighting source. Therefore if you are in a room with windows and the sun is shining in, the videographer should be standing in front of the window with their back facing the window. The films subject will then be lit by the sun. If you are outside, always have your subject shaded by trees, never film into the sun. If you’re going to be doing a lot of outdoor filming, invest in one of these: http://www.filmtools.com/ligdep/lighting-control.html. If the space you’re in doesn’t have lighting and you cannot bring in any additional lighting sources, I would highly recommend you move. Bad lighting = bad quality = bad reflection on your organization.

Framing + Depth. Video is a visual medium. People like watching videos not because they don’t want to read, but because people are attracted to pretty things. This is the basis film and it is why Hollywood is so superficial. While filmmakers try not to adhere to this sad outlook on life, it might as well be a universal truth: the better your video looks, the more people will enjoy watching it and the more people will watch it. So when conducting an on-camera interview I find the following rules to be generally a knock-out (see below image for example):

Frame the subject on the left or on the right. If including multiple interviews, stagger what side the interview is on to mix it up when editing.

Do not move. Cheaper cameras or cell phone videos do not focus well when in motion. You must film interviews on a tripod. The subject can be standing or sitting, but the camera must be at eye level, slightly looking down (never looking upwards à double chin no-no). Tell the subject not move their feet around and not to sway back and forth. These slight movements on camera are exaggerated and communicate discomfort which then makes the viewer uncomfortable.

Always have a background with depth. Alternatively, never film on a flat wall. Unless someone professional is filming, I would avoid this look because it comes down to the lighting to create depth so if you don’t have the proper lighting don’t do it! This also means never have the subject of the film at the deepest point in the space. So make sure there is a hallway behind the film subject, or have the subject sit in the middle of the room so the aesthetically pleasing décor is behind the subject. You will have to adjust the normal set up of the room and you will have to physically edit the scene to fit with the framing.

BROLL. A-Roll means your “a” footage, such as your interview footage; it’s probably the footage with the sound you want to use as the focus of the video. B-Roll (broll, BROLL, b roll) is the supporting footage or the “b” footage. Never ever make a video that is longer than 45 seconds without BROLL. Interview-based videos without BROLL are called “talking heads” and again defeats the whole purpose of video as a visual medium. Nobody wants to watch someone talk and talk and talk on film, it’s boring. I can read interviews and I will probably find it more enjoyable. The beauty of BROLL is below:

It can be any visual. Pictures, other videos, newspapers, magazines, computer screen tutorials, etc. If you’re interviewing a donor about their donation, you can insert photos or videos of their donation in action. If you are making a case for your organization, you can add pictures of your staff, your space and your interaction in the community. The beauty of broll is that you are connecting the dots for your audience in front of them.

To determine what broll you’ll need to find listen to the interviewee: what key words do they say that you can add visuals to? Do they talk about funding a new building? If so insert an image or multiple images of an architect’s mock-up for the building.

It has no audio. Sometimes when we film in the real world, people say things we don’t want to hear in our video. Broll plays over the interview, so while you see the broll footage, you hear the interview (aroll footage).

You can edit long winded interviews down better. BROLL is a great cover for difficult interviews. People ramble on and on and you probably only needed a few of the sentences they said. BROLL eases the flow of a cut up interview so that you can better edit the sound bites together and you don’t have to worry about the interview footage cutting together poorly.

If you take these lessons to heart, even the most amateur filmmaker can make a visually-appealing, engaging video that they should be proud of. Fundraising is becoming all about storytelling, so to be able to add a dynamic visual element such as a video when sharing a story or an achievement means donors won’t have to work to get the point.

You want donors to know they are doing good in the world, so show them!

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Written by Kimberly Elworthy

Kimberly is a communications specialist in educational fundraising and alumni relations who worked in lifestyle television for four years. She is currently on the Board of Directors for the Grand River Film Festival. (Click here for more).